Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?

Subject: Tech: XP - How to disable...?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 09:10 AM

HOW do I get rid of that irritating dialogue balloon that pops up from my taskbar every time I log on to the net or copy something to a CD-RW, telling me that I have just logged on to the net or copied something to the CD-RW? It means I have to stop whatever I'm doing to click it shut (and it doesn't always believe me the first time) because it covers up part of the text until I do. I've looked in Control Panel without success and am scared to mess with any of the other operating system files in case I screw them up. I'm considering committing computercide - help!

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?
From: Devilmaster
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 12:39 PM

read this webpage.

http://malektips.com/windows_xp_0009.html


Steve

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?
From: open mike
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 01:37 PM

i khave troubel too..a firewall installed itself via windows xp update
and now the connection is all garbled when i try to go to the music site at paltalk. I am trying to disable the firwall so i can get smooth sound again...very frustrating...

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 02:43 PM

Thanks, Devil - Gawd, they sure don't want to make it easy for you, do they? I have no idea whether or not I'm using the Registry Editor incorrectly, and now wonder if it's worth the risk. Why can't they just give us a menu option to disable? Anyway, I appreciate your info, which will save me combing through my menus for easy answers. Shoulda known...

Does anyone have any experience of the following (taken from their instruction page)?

"To Disable The Notification Area Balloon Tips
Warning If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
1.        Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then press ENTER.
2.        Navigate to the following subkey:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
3.        Right-click the right pane, create a new DWORD value, and then name it EnableBalloonTips.
4.        Double-click this new entry, and then give it a hexadecimal value of 0.
5.        Quit Registry Editor. Log off Windows, and then log back on.
These steps disable all Notification Area balloon tips for this user. There is no way to disable balloon tips for specific programs only."

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 03:08 PM

Bonnie - I haven't used this particular key, but I have used REGEDIT a lot. When you run it it will look a bit like a Windows Explorer window with the keys in the left hand pane. Move to the subkey given above as if you were moving to a folder in Explorer (ie Click + to open subfolders, - to close them). When you get to the subkey, do what it says - right click in the right hand pane and you will get a context menu with New on it, then that will open with a set of choices and you should choose DWORD, it will create an entry on the right with a generated name highlit for you to edit - just overwrite it with the text: EnableBallonTips. Then double-click on that name and a box will pop up for you to enter a value - 0 as given. Then exit Regedit and you're done, apart from having to log out and log back in to enable it. The warnings relate to the fact that there's a lot of sensitive stuff in the registry that you mess with at your peril, but if you're careful you'll be fine. (You can save the original keys to restore them later, but not worth it here).

I hope you read the part about this change disabling all balloon messages, in particular notifications for critical updates (if you have that enabled) will not appear - you'll need to check for Windows updates manually.

If you don't like the change, you can use Regedit, go back to the key, highlight your new EnableBalloonTips entry in the right hand pane and delete it - you'll be back where you started.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 05:39 PM

Haven't they got a 'TweakUI' for XP yet?

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 05:44 PM

Good thought Foolestroupe. They do and disabling Balloon Tips is an option:

Select Run from Start menu and type TweakUI

Click on Taskbar in Left hand pane and remove the tick in Enable Ballon Tips (by clicking it) in the right hand pane afterwards. Click Apply and exit.

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?
From: GUEST,MCP
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 05:55 PM

I should have added, if you haven't got TweakUI, you can get it for XP (and the other Power Toys) from Power Toys/XP

Mick

Subject: RE: Tech: Windows XP - How to disable...?
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 08:22 PM

Wow, you guys - I'm impressed! Thanks so much for all the help -